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Published: July 26th 2010
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From Sapporo, we took the local train for Iwamizawa, and got off at Shinrin Koen. It was raining heavily with strong winds when we arrived at the station. We found the bus stop which the bus for Kaitaku no mura would stop at, but we decided to wait for the bus inside of the station building. The bus arrived a little late because of the heavy rain. The bus ran through Nobori Shinrin Koen and bought us to Kaitaku no mura in ten minutes.
Mark recognised the entrance building of the replica of the former Sapporo Station building, which was shown on the website. As soon as we paid for the admissions, there was a lady coming to me who asked if we would like to have a guide. She wasn't an English speaking guide, but we decided to accept, as I could translate it for Mark. It continued raining.
She took us to the former inn, Otaru Newspaper Company, Sake Brewery, Grocery shop, Buckwheat noodle shop and its owners' residence, which would have been rented out, barber, Urakawa Church building, police station (which existed in Sapporo till the 1970s), confectionery shop, Cart and sleigh factory, Aoyama fishing residence,
farmhouse, former soldiers' accommodation and Shinto shrine with sumo wrestling place, etc.
She showed us the features of the traditional Japanese houses, e.g. sliding door, and symmetrical Western style buildings, thick stone wall and warehouses, which had been transferred from Otaru, different types of sweets, remodelled sledges. I could see the stone buildings and walls could protect the residents from the wind and fire in the coastal regions like Otaru. It was amazing to know that the fishermen caught tons of herrings in the past and the Aoyama family gained huge wealth from producing a massive of fish oil from the dried herrings and further income from the production of cosmetic items.
At the former Otaru newspaper company, we were shown dozens of micro-sized letters which would be inserted for printing manually and how to print the cards using the old-fashioned printer and sent the copy to one of our relatives in England.
There are 52 show houses in Kaitaku no mura, all of which were used for agriculture, commerce, catering, schools, factories, and private houses, and offices for the pioneering projects, and most of which have been transferred from various places in Hokkaido and restored to
the village as it would have existed between the late 19th century and the beginning of the 1930s.
Looking at Basha Tetsudo, the tram pulled by the horse, the guide told us that Hokkaido's horses are generally smaller than ones in Honshu islands.
As well as the basha tetsudo, the acacia avenue, which used to be in Sapporo till the 1950s, has been restored. Later on, I found the picture of Sapporo in the 1950s in the JR magazine, and the scene of the acacia avenue and station building in the kaitaku no mura looked the same as the picture. We were shown the portraits of people who led the pioneering projects and introduced modern types of machinery and agricultural tools, pictures of labourers building up the railway in the mountains and fishermen catching herrings.
Show houses included churches, temples and shrines where the people, who had come from elsewhere in Japan for the pioneering projects, would gather to worship and pray for the peaceful life for the dead. The work in the northern territory of Japan was very hard. They had to endure with the very cold and snowy climate, as well as hard labour. It
was thus necessary for them to have the place where they could meet up and raise their spirits.
We saw a number of houses with the steep roof and found that they were constructed with several layers of thick oak to cope with heavy snowfall over the winter. However, there was a farmhouse with stones which were laid on top of the thin veneer slices. The guide explained to us that the farmhouse used to be in the coastal region along the Pacific, where climate wasn’t very snowy but windy throughout the year and it was necessary for the residents to lay stones to stop the roof being blown away. It was also interesting to see the chicken cage placed at a few meters above the ground to protect them from the foxes.
Due to the wet weather, we didn’t go to the mountain village area. The guided tour lasted 90 minutes. Mark found the history of Hokkaido and the pioneering projects very interesting.
We had lunch in the restaurant. The rain seemed to have eased up and we decided to stroll through the village to take photos. We looked round the visitor centre. It started raining in the mid afternoon and we decided to go back to the hotel. We bought the guidebook. I translated some of the interesting details for Mark, after we came back to the hotel.
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